diff --git a/cmd/clicheck/check_cli_conventions.go b/cmd/clicheck/check_cli_conventions.go
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..6c264b87b5d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/cmd/clicheck/check_cli_conventions.go
@@ -0,0 +1,48 @@
+/*
+Copyright 2016 The Kubernetes Authors.
+
+Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+You may obtain a copy of the License at
+
+    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+
+Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+limitations under the License.
+*/
+
+package main
+
+import (
+	"fmt"
+	"io/ioutil"
+	"os"
+
+	"k8s.io/kubernetes/pkg/kubectl/cmd"
+	cmdutil "k8s.io/kubernetes/pkg/kubectl/cmd/util"
+	cmdsanity "k8s.io/kubernetes/pkg/kubectl/cmd/util/sanity"
+)
+
+var (
+	skip = []string{}
+)
+
+func main() {
+	errors := []error{}
+
+	kubectl := cmd.NewKubectlCommand(cmdutil.NewFactory(nil), os.Stdin, ioutil.Discard, ioutil.Discard)
+	result := cmdsanity.CheckCmdTree(kubectl, cmdsanity.AllCmdChecks, []string{})
+	errors = append(errors, result...)
+
+	if len(errors) > 0 {
+		for i, err := range errors {
+			fmt.Fprintf(os.Stderr, "%d. %s\n\n", i+1, err)
+		}
+		os.Exit(1)
+	}
+
+	fmt.Fprintln(os.Stdout, "Congrats, CLI looks good!")
+}
diff --git a/hack/.linted_packages b/hack/.linted_packages
index 87545c341f2..2664e7a8417 100644
--- a/hack/.linted_packages
+++ b/hack/.linted_packages
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 cluster/addons/fluentd-elasticsearch/es-image
 cluster/images/etcd/attachlease
 cluster/images/etcd/rollback
+cmd/clicheck
 cmd/gendocs
 cmd/genkubedocs
 cmd/genman
diff --git a/hack/verify-cli-conventions.sh b/hack/verify-cli-conventions.sh
new file mode 100755
index 00000000000..28a1a5c9be2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/hack/verify-cli-conventions.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,40 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+
+# Copyright 2016 The Kubernetes Authors.
+#
+# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+# you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+# You may obtain a copy of the License at
+#
+#     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+# WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+# See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+# limitations under the License.
+
+set -o errexit
+set -o nounset
+set -o pipefail
+
+KUBE_ROOT=$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE}")/..
+source "${KUBE_ROOT}/hack/lib/init.sh"
+
+kube::golang::setup_env
+
+BINS=(
+	cmd/clicheck
+)
+make -C "${KUBE_ROOT}" WHAT="${BINS[*]}"
+
+clicheck=$(kube::util::find-binary "clicheck")
+
+if ! output=`$clicheck 2>&1`
+then
+	echo "FAILURE: CLI is not following one or more required conventions:"
+	echo "$output"
+	exit 1
+else
+  echo "SUCCESS: CLI is following all tested conventions."
+fi
diff --git a/pkg/kubectl/cmd/util/sanity/cmd_sanity.go b/pkg/kubectl/cmd/util/sanity/cmd_sanity.go
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..1460d3228e8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkg/kubectl/cmd/util/sanity/cmd_sanity.go
@@ -0,0 +1,94 @@
+/*
+Copyright 2016 The Kubernetes Authors.
+
+Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+You may obtain a copy of the License at
+
+    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+
+Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+limitations under the License.
+*/
+
+package sanity
+
+import (
+	"fmt"
+	"os"
+	"strings"
+
+	"github.com/spf13/cobra"
+	"k8s.io/kubernetes/pkg/kubectl/cmd/templates"
+)
+
+type CmdCheck func(cmd *cobra.Command) []error
+
+var (
+	AllCmdChecks = []CmdCheck{
+		CheckLongDesc,
+		CheckExamples,
+	}
+)
+
+func CheckCmdTree(cmd *cobra.Command, checks []CmdCheck, skip []string) []error {
+	cmdPath := cmd.CommandPath()
+
+	for _, skipCmdPath := range skip {
+		if cmdPath == skipCmdPath {
+			fmt.Fprintf(os.Stdout, "-----+ skipping command %s\n", cmdPath)
+			return []error{}
+		}
+	}
+
+	errors := []error{}
+
+	if cmd.HasSubCommands() {
+		for _, subCmd := range cmd.Commands() {
+			errors = append(errors, CheckCmdTree(subCmd, checks, skip)...)
+		}
+	}
+
+	fmt.Fprintf(os.Stdout, "-----+ checking command %s\n", cmdPath)
+
+	for _, check := range checks {
+		if err := check(cmd); err != nil && len(err) > 0 {
+			errors = append(errors, err...)
+		}
+	}
+
+	return errors
+}
+
+func CheckLongDesc(cmd *cobra.Command) []error {
+	cmdPath := cmd.CommandPath()
+	long := cmd.Long
+	if len(long) > 0 {
+		if strings.Trim(long, " \t\n") != long {
+			return []error{fmt.Errorf(`command %q: long description is not normalized
+ ↳ make sure you are calling templates.LongDesc (from pkg/cmd/templates) before assigning cmd.Long`, cmdPath)}
+		}
+	}
+	return nil
+}
+
+func CheckExamples(cmd *cobra.Command) []error {
+	cmdPath := cmd.CommandPath()
+	examples := cmd.Example
+	errors := []error{}
+	if len(examples) > 0 {
+		for _, line := range strings.Split(examples, "\n") {
+			if !strings.HasPrefix(line, templates.Indentation) {
+				errors = append(errors, fmt.Errorf(`command %q: examples are not normalized
+ ↳ make sure you are calling templates.Examples (from pkg/cmd/templates) before assigning cmd.Example`, cmdPath))
+			}
+			if trimmed := strings.TrimSpace(line); strings.HasPrefix(trimmed, "//") {
+				errors = append(errors, fmt.Errorf(`command %q: we use # to start comments in examples instead of //`, cmdPath))
+			}
+		}
+	}
+	return errors
+}